


Southern Cooking

by forbala



Series: Jewish works [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Jewish Character, Jewish Jack Zimmermann, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 02:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16944939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forbala/pseuds/forbala
Summary: Jack barely speaks up, but he doesn't really have to. Bitty hears him anyway.In which Jack keeps kosher and Bitty is confused.





	Southern Cooking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twistedmiracle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedmiracle/gifts).



> As soon as I read twistedmiracle's Jewish Jack, I was hooked. 
> 
> In which Bitty recreates situations from my real life when I try to explain Judaism to Southerners.

Jack shouldn't have been surprised. After all, Bittle was from Georgia, and not even Atlanta but Madison. Jack gathered it was smaller and much more rural than the city of Atlanta. There were plenty of Jews in Atlanta; Jack knew because his mom had a cousin there. But Madison, not so much apparently. All to say, Jack shouldn't have been surprised that Bittle had never met a Jewish person. 

The first time it came up (Shitty screaming “Shabbat shalom!” as loudly as he could and Jack and Holster returning the greeting one Friday night), Bittle had looked up from the pie he was making to ask what nonsense they were “hollerin.” 

“Bitty, brah, we're Jewish,” Shitty had said, throwing an arm over Bittle's shoulders.

“No kidding?” he'd asked. 

“Yup! And tonight is the start of the Sabbath.”

“Okay, don't shoot me, but...what do you mean? Ain't the Sabbath on Sunday?”

Shitty had gasped comically and so he and Holster had sat Bittle down and explained some of the more basic facts of Judaism. Shitty also required Jack to sit in, although he didn't add anything.

“So y'all don't believe in Jesus?”

“No Christmas?!”

“Saturday, huh? Neat.”

“Kosher? What's that?”

“Dear Lord, _why?_ ”

And so, Bittle learned about Jews.

~

Not long after that, it was a Tuesday and Bittle was making team dinner. “Y'all want anything special about your salads?” he asked.

“No meat on mine, Bittle. I'll have cheese instead.”

“Got it, captain.”

So Jack was surprised when his salad had bacon on it. “Bittle, do you have another salad?”

“I can whip one up, but why?”

“This has bacon on it.”

Bittle said nothing, just looked at him in confusion. 

“I asked for no meat.”

“You didn't want bacon? Why not?”

“It's pork. I keep kosher.”

“Aw hell! I forgot, I'm sorry Jack. Here, gimme that and I'll fix you a fresh one.”

Jack couldn't help but smile a bit as Bittle hustled around the kitchen again, muttering to himself. It was cute. 

~

“So when you say no pork, you mean nothin’, huh?” Bittle asked later. “No bacon or ham or tenderloin. Wow.”

“Nope. No shrimp, crab, or lobster either.”

“There go my crab cakes and shrimp an’ grits.”

Jack snorted. It was the closest thing to a laugh Bittle heard since they'd met and Jack saw him blush. 

“I hope you don't mind my asking, but why keep kosher? Why cut out so much food?”

“A lot of reasons, but mostly it makes me feel closer to G-d. I don't go to services or keep Shabbat. I play hockey on Shabbat all the time. I don't pray much. This is something I can do to be connected.”

Bittle nodded and smiled. “Well. I'm glad. I'll do better from now on. No more pork!”

~

Months later, when Bitty visits Jack's Providence apartment for the first time, he said, “Sweetpea, which is meat and which is dairy?”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, walking into the kitchen to join him.

“Isn't your kitchen kosher? I need the dairy stuff.”

“Oh. It's left of the stove. Meat is on the right. The oven is dairy—so you can make pie.”

“Perfect!” He started rustling around in the cabinets. 

“Bits,” Jack said. “Did you look up kashrut?”

“Well, of course, hon! I gotta know how to cook for you!”

Jack felt overwhelmed with emotion that little Southern baker Bittle would put in so much time for him and he almost cried. Instead, he took two big steps and hugged Bittle from behind. “Thank you,” he whispered. His voice was tight. 

Bittle just leaned back into him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
